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chrp-tem1

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Title

Locating Sound

Problem Scenario

My problem scenario shows how some people are deaf and how it effects it when you are deaf
in one ear. Also it tells you how good people with normal ears boys, girls, women and men. Taking the results of this it will tell us which ear hears better and how they work together.

Broad Question

How do people use there ears to hear?

Specific Question

How do your ears work together to hear where sound is coming from?

Hypothesis

People will hear worst with there right ear covered and better with there left ear covered but best with both ears opened.

Graph of Hypothesis

chrp-tem1-hypothisis.png



Variables

Independent Variable:

Subjects ear history.

Dependent Variable:

Number of correct responses

Variables That Need To Be Controlled

How loud the sound playing is

Vocabulary List That Needs Explanation

Sound Synthesizer- Electronic device that produce a wide variety of sound.
Pitch- The highness and lowness of sound.
Deafness- Loss of hearing.
Timbre- Music tone or quality of sound.

General Plan

The general plan of my experiment is to start by having a subject and placing them in a room that is quiet. Then you put a blindfold on them and cover there ears and walk around the room and clap. If they point to where you clapped from or near where you clapped from then you write one on the data sheet. Also make sure that you have speakers or a sound source so they don't hear you walking around.

Potential Problems And Solutions

One problem may be that they would hear you walking around and the solution to that problem is having a sound source that will cover up the sound of you walking around.Someone could be able to see through the blindfold also so you have to make sure you have a good reliable blindfold.

Safety Or Environmental Concerns

The only safety concern is that people are blindfolded so you have to make sure that they don't get hurt.

Experimental Design

Number Of Trials:

29


Number Of Subjects In Each trial:

1

When data will be collected:

3/14/12

Number of Observations:

12


Resources and Budget Table

Blindfold Mr.Biche 0
Ear Muffs Mr. Mckay 0
i Pod Student 0

Background Research


Surround sound has been used a lot in today and is a fun new technology that is coming out. There are many different types of surround sounds and there is also and interesting way that the manufacturers make surround sound. Which ear can people hear better with there right or there left ear? Another question that will be answered is which gender has better hearing.

Surround Sound
Today we experience sound in ambient noises. Surround sound recreates a whole new landscape the right sounds in the right places to simulate it and make it feel like you are actually at the scene shown in a movie. As an example it is like watching a movie where a guy is sitting on a bench on a sidewalk and he hears his friend calling to him from the left side of him. For that scene surround sound would make his friend calling for him come from the left side so therefore it would seem more realistic.The higher number of surround sound speakers makes the scenes better because it places the sound in the right place.There are three types of surround sound systems, 5-1, 6-1 and 7-1. 5-1 being the worst with the least speakers and 7-1 being the best with the most speakers.

Right Ear or Left Ear?
Studies show that most people prefer there right ear over there left ear when listening. Scientist's asked many people if they would prefer someone to whisper in there right ear or there left ear and the majority said right ear. Research also says people are more likely to do a favor when it being said to there left ear rather then there right ear. Many scientists have said that the right ear hears better then the left ear. Some scientists say that the right ear is better in regular conversation but the left ear is better in detecting the emotions of the person you are talking to. Pitch, timbre and loudness are detecting by the left ear but the duration of a sound is better detected by the right ear.
Comparing Gender Hearing
Research shows that men are more likely to have hearing issues or to become deaf then women. Also men are more prone to head traumas and many other problems with there body such as. One reason is because men may work more or work in harder profession that involve more intense noise. Studies show that women also have better high frequency hearing then men. Hormones also play a big role in the perniciousness in men and women hearing. All around women according to studies are better at hearing then men.

To conclude I found a few different ideas from my background research. I learned a lot about surround sound and that there are many different types and how surround sound works in general. I also learned that studies show that people like there right ear better for hearing and hear better with it. Different ears hear different things when it comes to everyday conversation. I did some research on comparing men and women in hearing and i found that women hear better then men in general because men have to work more and in a harder profession. Also hormones are a big factor in different levels of hearing.




References

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-surround-sound.htm
http://www.livescience.com/9679-people-prefer-ear-listening.html
http://reconingspeakers.com/2010/06/gender-hearing-differences/

Detailed Procedure

1. Buy or borrow a pear of ear muffs and also borrow a blind fold or something that can cover your subjects eyes.
2. Find some people who are interested in participating in the project and being the subjects.
3. Have the subject sit down in chair.
4. Blindfold the subject.
5. Start playing music in background.
6. Walk around and point the person playing music.
7. Person playing stops playing the music when pointed to.
8. Person Walking around clapping stops and claps.
9. Subjects points to where the clap is coming from.
10. Record the data with a 1 if they pointed within the correct area and a 0 if they pointed in different direction of clap.






Results

All Raw Data

Subject
 Both Ears
 Left Ear covered
 Right Ear covered
Girl
 4
 3
 3
Boy
 4
 1
 3
Boy
 4
 1
 2
Boy
 2
 1
 1
Boy
 4
 3
 2
Boy
 2
 2
 1
Boy
 3
 2
 1
Boy
 3
 2
 2
Girl
 2
 4
 2
Girl
 2
 1
 2
Boy
 3
 4
 3
Girl
 4
 3
 2
Girl
 3
 4
 3
Girl
 4
 2
 2
Girl
 5
 3
 2
Boy
 4
 1
 3
Women
 4
 2
 1
Women
 4
 3
 2
Man
 5
 4
 1
Man
 5
 3
 2
Women
 3
 2
 2
Man
 4
 2
 1
Man
 2
 3
 2
Man
 3
 4
 2
Boy
 4
 3
 2
Girl
 5
 3
 2
Girl
 4
 4
 1
Man
 5
 3
 2

Graphs



chrp-tem1.png

Photos




IMG_0387[1]






Data Analysis

My graph shows that people with the right ear hear better then with there left ear. Also if you look at the data I had you can tell that men hear better then boys and women sometimes hear better then girls.

Conclusion

My hypothesis is that people would hear better in obviously hear best with there right ear then they would would there left ear and that is what the data and the graphs have shown. My hypothesis graph came out to be the same exact same thing as my data graph. Obviously people heard best with both ears not covered and least best with there left ear opened and there right ear covered and that was my my exact hypothesis.

Discussion

My project answers the questions that I had when I started the experiment very well. The questions how do people use there ears to hear? The obvious answer is that people use both ears to hear but the majority of there hearing is used with there right ear. How do peoples ears work together to hear? The answer is that they use there right ear and there left ear to locate sound together but there right ear is just better at hearing where sound is coming from.

There are a few sources of error in my project. One being that the sound that was covering up the person walking around could not be loud enough so the subject could hear the person walking and know where to point. Maybe the person that was clapping clapped at different levels of sound for different people making it harder for some people then others.

Benefit to Community and/or Science

My project benefits the community and science because it is a very important study and hearing can be a big problem in the world today. Somebody who works for fixing peoples ears this might be some good research for those people.

Abstract

My problem scenario for my project is that it shows which ear is better to be deaf in and if boys or that age matters when it comes to hearing. My question is How do your ears work together to know where sound is coming from? During the experiment I discovered that people use mostly there right ear when hearing where sound is coming from.